Cold Pursuit

February 10, 2003
Parker, whose Silent Joe
won an Edgar in 2001, can turn his hand to many genres: this one is a thriller with elements of family feud, and with a setting—San Diego in an unusually rainy winter—that is wonderfully moody. Homicide cop Tom McMichael is called in on the murder of wealthy old Pete Braga, a legendary local character who was once a tuna fisherman and now moves in the city's top financial circles. The problem is that his Portuguese family and McMichael's Irish one have a rivalry going back two generations. The details of that past, and the picture that emerges of two feisty old men locked into a bitter battle, are the brightest part of the book. The actual plot is more conventional: Braga's attractive nurse is an obvious suspect, so it is unwise for Tom to fall for her. Was the patriarch's killing related to local politics, or perhaps to his changed will? There are numerous red herrings—including a lurid subplot about a crooked cop and a very surprising commodity being smuggled across the border from Mexico—before the violent, rather improbable denouement. It's not unusual for a thriller to begin much better than it ends, but the more eloquent passages of Cold Pursuit
make the routine ones doubly disappointing.

February 15, 2003
San Diego homicide detective Tom McMichael heads up the investigation into the murder of 84-year-old Pete Braga, ex-mayor, influential businessman, millionaire-and the man who shot his grandfather years before. That death began a family feud between the Portuguese Bragas and the Irish McMichaels that has lasted to the present. At the crime scene, the detectives find Braga's bloodstained nurse, who tried to perform CPR when she discovered her charge's bludgeoned body; she becomes the first suspect. Then they discover that the wealthy man was attempting to change his will, but his law firm had lost the letters expressing his wishes. Add to that a cop gone wrong but with business ties to the Braga automobile dealership, and the murder takes on new significance. The story neatly weaves the current case with the past, giving McMichael a great mystery to solve and, in turn, the reader a terrific time following clues. Parker, whose Silent Joe won the 2002 Edgar Award for Best Novel, writes complex mysteries peopled with finely developed characters. For most fiction collections.-Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Hts.-University Hts. P.L., OH

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2003
Pete Braga, eightysomething former Port Commissioner, car dealer, and one of San Diego's wealthiest and most influential citizens, is bludgeoned to death by an intruder. Homicide detective Tom McMichael and his team take the call. McMichael has a long history with the Braga family. Twenty years ago, he was wildly in love with Braga's granddaughter. Thirty years before that, McMichael's father was thought to be the man responsible for beating Braga's son so severely he never regained full mental capacity. But that was then. Now McMichael has to set aside the past to find out who killed an old man. Braga's home-care nurse, who made the 911 call, seems the logical suspect, but there are plenty of other candidates. Braga was still active in local politics and could have been taken out by a half-dozen people who would benefit from the power vacuum. And, of course, there are Braga's heirs, who may have simply tired of waiting for his fortune. Parker, a beautiful stylist and winner of the 2001 Edgar Award for " Silent "Joe, takes the standard mystery plot device of a motive from the distant past and upends it. The result is surprising and deeply satisfying. Another wonderful mystery from one of the very best.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)